Page 26 of Bratva Daddies for the Single Mom

I waited for her reaction, gauging her interest through her mouth and eyes, all the ways I’d learned a woman used to show her genuine feelings. Annie had a tendency to confuse me, something I appreciated even as I hated it. She blinked, the motion slow and exaggerated. “You drove a limo?”

“No.” I didn’t bother hiding the smirk. “I had my driver bring us.”

“Why are they in the car?” Her elbow bumped the wall when she shifted her weight to the side. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Fuzzy slippers covered her feet, and I recognized the coffee shop on her shirt from the place Ilya reported as where the driver had dropped her off after the auction. We were mere blocks from that shop. Blocks Ilya had traversed in search of her with no luck thanks to the discrepancy in her name on the lease and the Annie we knew. “Would you like me to call them over?” I raised my hand.

Annie snatched it from the air and gripped my wrist tight. “No.” There was no mistaking the way her eyes flashed with hunger despite her denial. “Thank you for coming. I’m fine. I feel fine.”

“You said that already.” Amusement rippled through me. “If I did not know better, I would think you wanted to be rid of me.”

“It’s not that.” Her tone dismantled the words.

“Then would you like to join us?” I swept my free hand toward the door. “We would very much like to finish what we started in the office. If you are not too tired or upset?”

“Upset?” Her mouth did that thing where one side pulled upward in obvious confusion.

“Ilya worried that we pushed you too far after your encounter with Robert. If that is the case, we apologize.” I raised the hand she held and kissed her knuckles. “The last thing we want is to cause you pain.”

“You haven’t. You didn’t.” The rambling was less than convincing. Once she realized it, she stopped and seemed to gather herself. “It’s not a good idea for me to join you.”

“Oh?” I nipped at her knuckles. “Did you not enjoy yourself?” Her cheeks flushed. Not that, then. “Have we done something to displease you?”

Her body stilled, going from warm to frigid in a heartbeat.

“You can tell me, Annie.” I reassured her the best I could with my limited resources. “Whatever we did, one word from you and it will never happen again.”

“Never?” Her fingers twitched on mine. “Can you promise that?”

“Tell me what we did wrong.” It wasn’t an answer. I didn’t give blatant promises until I knew the situation. I’d promised if we displeased her, it wouldn’t happen again. Perhaps I should have been more careful with my wording. We did a lot of displeasing things.

Annie pulled her hand from mine and returned it to her pocket. “I overheard something disturbing in the breakroom… about you.”

Ah. The cesspool of indignation and the willful spreading of rumors. I tempered my reaction before it frightened her into silence.

“I heard that you were part of the Russian Mob.” She spoke low and quick, like she feared the act of saying the words more than the words themselves.

“I am the head of the Bratva here in Chicago, the Pakhan.” The clarification was important. To understand me and my brothers, she needed all of the available information pertinent to the situation.

Shock and a large dose of fear scurried across her face.

“Ilya and Fyodor are my two most loyal men. They are my brothers-in-arms, and you have nothing to fear from us.” I allowed that to sink in. I knew better than to assume her reaction would be calm and rational and waited for the burst of shouting. “We would never hurt you.”

A sound of denial, a low keen from the back of her throat. “But Ilya.” She stopped and took a step backward, toward thedoorway to her humble home. “He snapped that man’s wrist. Right in front of me. It was the scariest thing I’d ever seen.”

“Even more frightening than a man who refused to drop his hand when you demanded it?” The words wrenched from my gut and poured from me in a spew of anger. I swallowed the remainder down and calmed myself. “Ilya broke Robert’s wrist to protect you. In our world, respect is earned, taken, demanded, and exploited through these methods. It was a clear message to Robert and all his people. It was a command that no one touches you. Not ever.”

“Because I belong to you?” she asked.

“It is more complex than that. You are not property. You do notbelongtous.We have asked you to join us, to be with us, in a complex relationship that has remained undefined.” I longed to define it, to command her to join us. But that was not how love and romance worked. She was not mine to order about, not a soldier I controlled but a piece of my heart. A piece she had stolen in the darkness of night before we even truly knew her. Her continued hesitation spurred me to add, “I would ask you for one more night. No strings attached.”

She perked up. “What does that mean?”

I pressed my advantage and her curiosity, taking a step closer and sliding a hand around her hip. She pressed her shoulders into the wall, her hands resting lightly on my ribs. “You can think about taking things further for as long as you need. All I ask is that you give us one more night to help you decide.” I fully intended to use this night to convince her that she needed us in her life.

Our lips met with the slow sensuality of banked passion on the cusp of exploding. I tugged her hips flush against mine, not giving a damn if her neighbors peeked out and saw us making out like teenagers. I’d dreamed of touching her again every second of every day. I traced the seam of her lips, andwhen she opened for me, our tongues collided, spurring us closer together. Her hips rocked against mine in a steady pulse. I ached to be inside her, to claim her once more as mine… as ours. She had claimed me from the moment she stepped onto that stage, though she had no idea the power she held in her perfect hands. I belonged to her, not the other way around. I would tear the world apart, burn everything to the ground, at a simple word from her. Our mutual greed for touch brought her hands beneath my shirt to touch bare skin. I broke off the kiss before I tore her clothes off and buried myself inside her here in the hallway. The temptation to open the door and fall into her apartment where we could find satisfaction without prying eyes threatened to consume me. Ilya and Fyodor would never let me get away with it. They had as much right to this moment as I did. “Will you come with me?” I kissed the side of her neck, her earlobe, and the swell of her breast before coming back to her lips.

Her nails scored my abdomen. “Yes.” She tipped her chin up and ran her hands down until she clasped my belt. “One night.”

Thank fuck. I laced our fingers together and walked her out the door.

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